Latest J.J. McCarthy injury further brings Vikings future into question

Despite back-to-back wins and solid performances from J.J. McCarthy over the past two weeks for the Minnesota Vikings, there was still some skepticism about the second-year quarterback. Yes, there are signs of improvement, but let's also not act like playing the Commanders and Cowboys defenses didn't help guide him to success — and that success didn't come without some flubs as well. But things were further complicated on Sunday when McCarthy left the Vikings' Week 16 game against the Giants with a hand injury.

McCarthy took a big hit from Brian Burns, who came off the line untouched for New York. He went to the sidelines and was checked out by trainers, where they found a hand injury and soon after ruled him out for the rest of Sunday's game. And frankly, that's a concerning trend that's starting to develop with the signal-caller in Minnesota.

J.J. McCarthy's availability has to factor into Vikings' future now

While McCarthy is technically a second-year quarterback, he obviously didn't see the field in the regular season as a rookie, after he suffered a season-ending knee injury in the Vikings preseason. He returned to the field this year, being given the reins of the Minnesota offense by Kevin O'Connell. Unfortunately, that's gone overall quite poorly, not just in terms of performance and results, but also just being on the field.

McCarthy had already missed six games with an ankle injury and a concussion this season before suffering the hand injury. Now, though we don't know the severity of what happened against the Giants just yet, he's in danger of missing even more time over the final two weeks of the regular season.

The nuts and bolts of that for McCarthy aren't pretty. Not to repeat an overused cliché, but a massive part of being an NFL quarterback is being on the field. Including Sunday's game and calling it a "half", that's only 8.5 games that McCarthy has played out of a possible 32 since he came into the league as a first-round pick out of Michigan.

Because of his paltry performance at times this season, there were already questions about if the Vikings would make any drastic moves or even consider already cutting bait with McCarthy. Now that his health is becoming a reasonable long-term concern as well, that only further complicates the issue at hand, and it certainly doesn't work in McCarthy's favor moving forward.

Vikings have plenty of pivots to make from J.J. McCarthy

There are no guarantees as to exactly what the Vikings' plan is. They could give McCarthy more opportunity to prove he can develop into a franchise quarterback and, more pertinently, stay healthy. They could bring in competition for McCarthy this offseason to compete in training camp next offseason and preseason. Or, Minnesota could simply cut ties and turn the page to another option. It feels like everything is on the table.

What makes that much more interesting for the Vikings is the potential availability of players this offseason. Daniel Jones will be a free agent, but will be coming off an Achilles injury. Eagles backup Tanner McKee has plenty of fans when it comes to his upside. Kyler Murray could be available via trade. This is to say, there are places that Minnesota could look quite easily on the QB market, and that's before talking about the draft as well.

In the wake of all of that, though, the potential that McCarthy is simply an injury-prone quarterback makes the evaluation of the situation next to impossible.

Perhaps the biggest thing that McCarthy has working in his favor is the grace awarded in the name of potential development. However, the biggest key to development, especially for a young player with his overall lack of experience, is being on the field. And if his ability to stay on the field is at all in question, that's not going to help his case to remain the guy with the Vikings.